Are Indian startups (ONLY) service aggregators?

Just curious are Indian startups only so called service aggregators?

I have come across few startups in recent times, so let me shortlist few of them :)-

- One which provides an online market place for buying new goods/utilities/clothes/books from different vendors,

- One which provides a mobile app / online portal to let common man to buy or sell stuffs from another common man.

- One which provides a website + mobile app to let users chose, select and shortlist homes in various cities/localities.

- One which provides a mobile app for getting your food delivered from your chosen restaurant.

- One which provides a mobile app for parent + child + school connectivity

- One which provides user an online option to search for help (plumbing/electrician etc).

- One which provides a mobile app for availing cab services.

- One which provides a mobile app for availing cargo vehicles for shifting goods etc.

- One which provides a mobile app + website to book bus tickets.

- One which provides a mobile app + website to book movie tickets.

Etc etc, I can name few more, never mind,
Do you see a pattern over here,

Each one of the above mentioned startup tries to automate a service which exists in the market!

Were there not cab services before, were there not parent teachers meet before, were there not bus booking counters before. etc, I am not saying none of them are beneficial,

Infact all of them are beneficial, I have nothing against any one of them.

I am just behind the thought process as to why each one of them is trying to automate service providers with an mobile app + website ?

Why isn't there anyone who can think of any start up which does not have a service provider underneath acting as a producer of revenue?

Is it that hard, when a startup can provide 12-15 Lakhs per annum to a BE fresher with 0 years experience I am sure they have a huge round of funding!

In that case, why cannot they do some path breaking research in core technology?

Well, I think I do have the answer in form of my assumptions,

- Path breaking research also breaks your back, its a pain in the arse when it comes to yielding results.
- Are startup founders trying to hide the above fact
- Are the founders greedy to make quick money and sell of the company to a competitor?

I almost forgot each of the above business / Startup I mentioned has one or more competitors too, thus driving the costs down also profit margins for them down, as a result they either end up in loss or they have to sell more / huge in number or shut shops!

Doesn't IIT / IIM tag add any weightage to research instead of automating service aggregation? I do not know. And by the way are these service aggregation idea original or are they copied from other countries? Well, I will leave it for you to decide!

Cheers,

Random thoughts on Indian Startups!

Often I wonder, what do Indian startups have as their business model?

Somehow, I am not able to conclude any decisive long term business model, which comes to my mind, which would carry them through for next few years or many more years.

You may be wondering, its their business, its their money, but what do I do, if my thoughts ask me questions on startups?

I can have an opinion of my own, why not?

So, coming back to the business model, I really think, Indian startups are lesser concerned about providing services to the Indian people. People cannot ask them to provide technology at a lesser price, they simply cannot(it demands another post).

Recently had a debate on a website, where in someone was of the opinion that the online retail & selling company was a technology company working and headquartered in India.

I was wondering, how come someone who is all about service aggregation, bringing different sellers under a common website come under a technology company. I do agree they provide mobile app and a website to chose products from, that does not mean they are a technology company, are they?

So the gentleman replied, technology company because, technology is needed to build a scalable website, mobile app and to maintain it which needs 100's of engineers and thus a technology company.

I was like, what the F! I always thought technology company is the one who gives proprietary technology straight to the end user in terms of usable products and NOT in terms of delivery of somebody's product via website.

- What may happen if the user's start going to stores and buying goods
   Still better discounts + reduced profit margins + higher pressure on buyer to sell more + higher force fed marketing resulting in buying unnecessary junk?
- What may happen if the user's buy only things which they genuinely require.
- Why are these service aggregators  not able to target coastal areas / rural areas
    Is it because rural people buy only stuffs that they need
    Is it because rural people are ready to spend enough time on services automated by these service aggregators?
    If rural people have such time to spend after work, where are we losing time?
again in traffic doing what ? building more of such applications to fool/con people into buying more junk.

Ahhh the vicious cycle continues!

Cheers,

PS - Amidst all of these I just saw someone being driven in a Porsche Cayenne (costs Rs 1crore +) in my tech park, well, may be the CEO of the online retail company, and the money, yeah investor funding!

Someone's sure getting richer conning common man into buying junk!